Introduction
Correctional institutions or facilities refer to prisons, jails, or any other detention institution meant to house people detained, arrested, or convicted in a criminal justice court (Williams, Ahalt, Cloud, Augustine, Rorvig, Sears, & Walter, 2020). Incarceration is the act of detaining people in prison or other correctional facilities. Critics have criticized the United States correctional institution systems’ safety and service delivery. On the contrary, the United States correctional facilities stand out above other countries regarding resources and funding (Williams et al., 2020). This paper examines how the availability of resources creates a disparity in incarceration systems and how the United States rises above many third-world countries in terms of safety in correctional institutions.
Comparison
A good and reliable way to compare the detention practices among different countries is by comparison of their imprisonment rate (Bartos & Kubrin, 2018). Using the above criteria, the United States tops the list with 716 prisoners per 100,000 of its citizens. This rate is more than half of the 222 countries included in the list. More research has been done on the comparison of correctional facilities all around the world (Bartos & Kubrin, 2018). Research conducted by world justice project rule in 2015, ranking 102 countries, founded on many indicators such as the criminal justice system, which measures the biasedness of the process, effectiveness of investigations, rights of the accused and the entire correctional system, the united states emerged number 23 among 102 countries, 16 among 24 regional countries and 23 among 31 income peers (Bartos & Kubrin, 2018). There is no quantitative statistic of the measure of the United States incarceration rate compared to other countries with a similar criminal justice system.
Further research shows that the general victimization rate in the United States is similar to most Europe countries, but the detention rate in the US is still higher than in those countries (Bartos & Kubrin, 2018). The united states continued to improve the safety and habitability of its correctional facilities over the years. According to research, the availability of resources and funding is critical in designing incarceration facilities in different countries. The United States is among the best in recourse mobilization. Contrary to many critics over the years about its criminal justice system, its correctional facilities are still top in terms of safety for both the officers and the detainees.
Opinion
Many third-world countries, more so from Africa and some parts of Asia, have if not dangerous, poor, and unsafe correctional facilities. Over the years, we have heard prisoners escape from those countries’ prisons. There has been news on deaths in prisons, sexual harassment, and even life intimidation. As much as we want to criticize the United States correctional institutions, it would be wiser to consider the strides it has made over the year and the measures put forward to mitigate the emerging issues. Although we have not achieved the ultimate safety in our prisons as a country, we deserve a better compliment from our critics.
Conclusion
Correctional facilities are indeed instrumental in the development of any institution. The detainees, on the other hand, are the beneficiaries of these institutions. Therefore, the safety of the detainees in terms of rights, fair trial, and habitable facilities is of the essence. Despite many critics about the united states correctional facilities and their safety, the fact is that these facilities are better off than those of other countries, more so the third-world countries.
References
Williams, B., Ahalt, C., Cloud, D., Augustine, D., Rorvig, L., Sears, D., & Walter, L. C. (2020). Correctional facilities in the shadow of COVID-19: unique challenges and proposed solutions. Health Aff, p. 10. http://www.antoniocasella.eu/salute/prisons_covid_26mar20.pdf
Bartos, B. J., & Kubrin, C. E. (2018). Can we downsize our prisons and jails without compromising public safety? Findings from California’s Prop 47. Criminology & Public Policy, 17(3), 693-715. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1745-9133.12378
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